


Twin Size Mattress

by projectsuvi



Category: HLVRAI - Fandom, Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: (disclaimer I’m not deaf or HOH so if I’m writing it wrong please call me on it), Autistic Benrey (Half-Life), College, Deaf Character, Friends to Lovers, Kinda, M/M, Murder Mystery, There’s a reason this AU is rated mature, dark themes, deaf Tommy, for tomrey anyways, ghost au, ish, it goes into some heavy material, there will be trigger warnings as needed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:55:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27647831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/projectsuvi/pseuds/projectsuvi
Summary: Tommy is a college dropout, living with his roommate and trying to get his father to leave him alone. He takes up urban exploring as a hobby, but doesn’t buy into the ghost side of it.That is, until he encounters one.(Rated M for dark themes (true crime style dark), there’s no sexual content.)
Relationships: Benrey/Tommy Coolatta, Bubby/Dr. Coomer (Half-Life), Gordon Freeman/Forzen
Comments: 3
Kudos: 34





	Twin Size Mattress

Tommy’s kind of tired. 

Nothing new, really, but still annoying. It’s the kind of weary, brain-fog exhaustion that comes with stress. He’s never been able to cope with stress exhaustion very well, so instead of sleeping or resting, he’s swirling around the remainder of his Pepsi and doom-scrolling. Turns out, the political cesspool that is Twitter makes a fantastic distraction from your feelings. 

He’s pointedly ignoring the thoughts rolling around in the back of his mind. The ones that sound exactly like his father, because his father did say them. Albeit in a text, but still. He hasn’t spoken to his dad in months. There’s a lot to unpack with that, and most of it has to do with Tommy dropping out of medical school. He’d cut contact with Gman after countless lectures about _‘I paid so much, I was so proud of you for getting in’._

He’d half considered blocking Gman’s number, but that seemed a little too extreme, a little too mean. So instead he ignores the monthly texts in favor of pretending he hadn’t dropped out of college and wasn’t avoiding the consequences of that. 

Is it petty? Yes. 

Does he care? Not really. 

Tommy’s pretty far into a thread about protesting safely when he sees the front door open. Benrey closes the door with his foot, holding a grocery bag in his arms. His dark hair is, once again, unruly as hell, and- “B-Benrey, that’s a concerning a-amount of Monster.”

Benrey smirks as he sets the bag filled with energy drink cans down on the counter. “Nah.” 

Tommy sighs. He’ll never voice it, but he hates how Benrey has to provide for both of them. It sucks. Benrey has a decent paying job at some goth themed bookstore, while Tommy is still unemployed, and has been since he dropped out. The most Tommy makes is from his small urban exploration Youtube channel, and it’s hardly enough to call it a living. 

Benrey doesn’t ever point out how little Tommy makes, thank god, but Tommy can tell he’s annoyed. Tommy doesn’t like only being able to pay a quarter of the rent either, but he’s trying his best, and Benrey seems to understand that. 

“Y-you do realize that stuff is full of chemicals, right?” Tommy smiles softly. Benrey smiles back.

“‘S fine. A uh, a little cancer never killed anyone.” 

Tommy raises an eyebrow, and Benrey snorts. The room settles into a comfortable silence after that. Tommy watches as Benrey puts groceries away, the typical college-student diet of Ramen and other unhealthy quick meals. 

“I think I’m going to d-do another urbex thing tomorrow,” Tommy says, scanning Benrey’s expression when he turns to look at him. There’s an unspoken agreement that Benrey has to face Tommy to speak, an accommodation for him being mostly deaf. “I’m bored.” 

“You’re stressed, not bored. Don’t give me that look, bro, you’re an uh, an open book.” 

Tommy rolls his eyes. _Damn you, for being more observant than you seem._ Benrey just tosses him a sympathetic look as he puts another can of Monster in the fridge. “Whuh, uh, what happened? Daddy-o text you again?” 

“Yeah.” 

“What this time?” 

“He um…” Tommy pauses, working his words out. He doesn’t like talking about the new issues with Gman. It’s a tense topic. “He asked if I’d reconsider. G-going back to college, I mean.” 

The reason Tommy had dropped out of college is really simple- too much work. It was all too much for him, too many standards and tests and not enough flexibility. Not to mention just how awful lectures were without an interpreter. The combination of that and his father’s high standards was just much pressure. So he quit, which is now his biggest regret. Great. 

He hadn’t even wanted to go to medical school! Tommy wanted to go to college for an English degree, to write! But Gman had insisted on medical school, or at the very least something STEM-related. They’d had many tense discussions around the dinner table about it, Gman’s blue eyes harsh and cold. _“There’s no hope for arts fields,”_ He’d say, in between bites of lauya. _“You’ll get nowhere with a creative writing degree.”_

Tommy would stare at the table, swirling his soup around and ignoring the burn of shame on his cheeks. It was always _“you’ll get nowhere,” “you’ll end up poor,” “don’t be a failure”._ Never encouragement. Sometimes Tommy would’ve rather been slapped than deal with it.

Benrey sighs, pulling a chair out from the table and sitting down. His dove grey eyes are soft. Tommy kind of hates it. “Shit. He’s really not giving it up.” 

“No, he’s n-not. I wish he would.” 

There’s a sinking feeling in Tommy’s chest. He hates it- actually, he hates all of this. He hates that his father keeps trying to guilt him into school, he hates that he was cowardly enough to drop out, he hates that he keeps throwing this onto his best friend. But what else is he supposed to do? He’s too broke to go back to college for a degree he actually wants, and Gman would never pay for it anyway. Maybe he could get some disability scholarship, but the very idea seems wrong. Tommy had never been one to play the deaf card. 

So he’s stuck. Fantastic. 

He fidgets with his hands under the table, rubbing his palms together and purposefully avoiding Benrey’s gaze. He’s not sure what he’s more scared of seeing- pity, or something else. 

“Look, man, I know this is going to sound dumb but your dad sucks. You don’t need to go back because uh, because your rich dad says so. You weren’t happy.” 

“I guess.” Tommy sighs. “I just...I don’t know. I-I don’t know where I was going with this.” 

“It’s chill.” Benrey shrugs. They’ve had this conversation a million times and it always seems to go like this. _“Dad wants me to go to college.” “Your dad is a dick.” “Yeah.”_ There’s never an actual solution to the problem, and maybe there really isn’t one. At least an appealing solution anyway. In conclusion: hell world. 

Suddenly, Benrey smiles. It’s his classic idea expression, raised eyebrows and mischievous eyes. “Hey, wanna watch a movie with me while I study for criminology? We can watch uh, we can watch Blair Witch or somethin’.” 

Leave it to Benrey to want to watch a horror film while studying for college. Only him. Tommy can’t help but smile back. “Y-Yeah! I can look for new places to um, to explore.” 

“Poggers!” Benrey’s smile widens into a grin. Tommy can’t help but think that it’s kind of adorable. He thinks a lot of things Benrey does are adorable, but will he let himself think about that? No. Of course not. They’ve got a good thing going, and Tommy’s not going to ruin it by being gay for his best friend. 

\----------  
There’s a tap on Tommy’s shoulder that feels suspiciously like a paw. 

Tommy glances over from the Reddit forum on his laptop to give Benrey a dry look. Benrey hasn’t done much studying in the past hour, instead either talking about the movie or harassing Tommy. Currently, his feet are in Tommy’s lap, and he’s holding their Sphynx cat Tortilla like the long cat meme. Tortilla is wearing a little black cat hoodie, and Benrey’s in a similar one. “Look. We match.” 

Tommy snorts. “She looks m-miserable. Don’t hold her like that.” Tortilla makes a soft mewl sound as if to confirm. 

Benrey pouts but sets her down. She just lays down on his chest, scrunching her nose when Benrey takes a drag from his vape. Tommy sighs, leaning into the couch. This is nice, just chilling with his best friend and their cat. Or cats, but Quesadilla is currently nowhere to be seen. 

Tommy resumes his scrolling. There isn’t much to look at today, but soon he comes across an abandoned high school. The post is a picture of a dilapidated classroom, the room lit in grey from the outside, bits of ceiling and insulation scattered on the floor. It looks like the perfect setting for a horror movie. So, perfect for his Youtube channel. 

It takes a bit, but eventually, Tommy finds the school in the picture. Thank god for having a friend who’s into ARGs to teach him how to cross-reference images. The school is the old Black Mesa High School, about an hour’s drive away from home. Another quick google search shows that it’s been shut down since 1998 after the district cut funding and built a new one. All things considered, there isn’t much information, but it’s just enough for Tommy to do a quick introduction voice-over in the video. 

He doesn’t have work tomorrow, because it’s Saturday, so it’s perfect. It’s like this opportunity just fell into his hands, like a gift. A little present from the universe for existing. 

Benrey’s talking over the movie again, and Tommy’s phone vibrates on the couch next to him. Another text from Gman, simply saying _“Don’t make this mistake.”_

Prick.

It’s been three months, you’d think Gman would get it through his head that Tommy’s not going back to school. He’s not his dad. He’s his own person, not the idealized gifted kid Gman wanted. 

He huffs, shuts his phone off, and throws it back on the couch. It’s too late at night, and besides- he’s got an adventure to plan.

**Author's Note:**

> Man we love some gman hatred in this household. I would like to sincerely apologize for the disturbing amount of italics in this chapter. 
> 
> Come yell at me on tungle dot hellscape @sodasuvi ! My inbox is always open!


End file.
